The 2006 World Cup hosts, Germany, have approached the Commission's Youth Unit in connection with a possible European Voluntary Service (EVS) project during the tournament. It is understood that the Commission would consider the World Cup an excellent opportunity for an EVS project and would welcome a grant application.
"The Commission is generally very interested in the further promotion and application of the concept of collective EVS on the occasion of major events, e.g. in the area of sports, youth or culture. A considerable extension of collective EVS under the new Youth in Action programme (2007-2013) is envisaged," said Jens Mester from the Youth Unit of DG Education and Culture.
There are three application deadlines per year for collective EVS projects under the Europe-wide strand of EVS - 1 Feburary, 1 June, 1 November.
The European Voluntary Service (EVS) falls under Action 2 of the EU Youth programme. In 2003, almost 3,500 young volunteers participated in EVS, which had a budget of almost 25m euros. Due to enlargement, the budget for 2004 was increased to 33m euros. An internet database of approved host organisations contains more than 6,000 potential placements. Following a recent evaluation and facing a higher level of demand, the Commission is currently overhauling EVS to develop it further and make it more user-friendly. The 2005 'User's Guide', which is effectively a continuous call for proposals, sets out all criteria and application procedures, will be published on the Commission's website in December.
Meanwhile, at a ceremony of Germany's so called 'football parliament' [DFB-Bundestages] on 22 October, Germany's President Horst Köhler explicitly thanked around a million volunteers who work as coaches, trainers, referees or chauffeurs to away games to help ensure that 80,000 games of football are played every weekend. He described football in Germany as more than just a sport for the masses but one that effectively comes from the masses, with more than "6m club members and 170,000 teams" playing every weekend. He added that "around 2m young children and youths train in clubs - more than ever before!"
During the speech he also stressed the opportunity that the World Cup represented as a showcase for Germany and "the considerable responsibility" footballers had as role models. Against the backdrop of a lack of home-grown talent being produced for the German national team, he appealed for football talent to be unearthed wherever children are playing the game and for more development of youth footballers.
Among EU member states Germany has a particularly strong tradition of 'Ehrenamt' [volunteer work]. Within the context of the European Year of Education through Sport, seventy young European volunteers aged 18 to 25 took part in the Euro 2004 football championships in Portugal. A press release on EYES says that there are voluntary helpers in around 700,000 sports clubs from the EU-15.
